I’m not sure of what censorship you speak of since you’ve already said what you wanted to say in the items comment section, after your flagged comment. You’ve practically littered his comments section with an argument that only frustrates the buyers themselves and helps nobody.

The author already stated time and time again that there is no second product and that the feature you seek is out of scope of the product itself. Other buyers also frustrated by your pedantic insistence told you the feature you seek has no place within the product and encourage the author to keep adding features that are useful to the general use case and not something specific to you. You were also directed to a separate freely available plugin that does what you ask several times but you’ve refused.

For the record, this is a very serious author with pretty good response times, who updates his product timely and listens to his users. The item is relatively new and has well over 500 purchases, with 64 5star ratings and a single 1star rating. You yourself promoted the author in his comments saying he’s pretty great and the plugin is excellent. When other users were in doubt, here is what you told them :

The plugin works fine with the latest version of Wordpress, and the author provides excellent support.

Now that you don’t get the feature you requested, you want to go all out on the author and put blame. You sadden me greatly.

Typps said
I’m not sure of what censorship you speak of since you’ve already said what you wanted to say in the items comment section, after your flagged comment.

My earlier comments were removed, the flagged comment you speak of is one that was flagged after the previously removed comments. If non defamatory, polite comments are removed then this is censorship and provides a biased perspective of the product on sale.

Typps said
You’ve practically littered his comments section with an argument that only frustrates the buyers themselves and helps nobody.

No I haven’t, I’ve had to repeat what I said because comments were removed. Remember you’re not seeing the whole story, when mine, and others comments have been pruned you’re seeing what the author wants you to see, not what was actually there.

Typps said
The author already stated time and time again that there is no second product and that the feature you seek is out of scope of the product itself.

The author has said no such thing, he promised:

“we’re really working hard on it for the later release. By the way, we’re hoping to be able to include this feature in….”

Typps said
Other buyers also frustrated by your pedantic insistence told you the feature you seek has no place within the product and encourage the author to keep adding features that are useful to the general use case and not something specific to you.

No they’re not, I can only see one comment from someone that hasn’t actually purchased the plugin (hardly ‘frustrated’ buyers) who is actually quite understanding, but highlight other problems with the plugin he’d like to see fixed before he purchases.

Typps said
You were also directed to a separate freely available plugin that does what you ask several times but you’ve refused.

I haven’t ‘refused’, I’ve asked the author if the ‘free’ plugin will actually fix all the issues with his plugin and he hasn’t actually confirmed this is the case.

Again though you’re not able to see the whole discussions we had as some have been removed.

Typps said
You yourself promoted the author in his comments saying he’s pretty great and the plugin is excellent. When other users were in doubt, here is what you told them :

The plugin works fine with the latest version of Wordpress, and the author provides excellent support.

I’m glad you pointed that out as it shows I was happy to defend and support the author against criticisms from other customers, as at that time he had promised to fix the issues and we were waiting for the update that he’d promised. Now he’s decided he’s not going to fix it and is withdrawing features he’d included, that comment isn’t valid, the author doesn’t provide excellent support. Though obviously he’s not going to flag that comment for removal.

Typps said
Now that you don’t get the feature you requested, you want to go all out on the author and put blame. You sadden me greatly.

If you read the comments section then you’ll see I’m not asking for new features, I’m asking him to fix the issues with his product, issues which he’d promised to fix weeks ago. He offered to add new features. He now says he’s not going to, but that’s fine, just fix the problems with the functionality that’s already there and we can all move on. Envato have read through the comments section and agree that “the author has gone back on a specific promise that they made to you”, so you seem to disagree with their view on the matter as well as ours.

it saddens me that you’re not sticking to the original topic of this thread.

pjtops said
Does your business have a website? Cause if you do, I’m sure all the content there has also been “pruned to the benefit of the seller”.

Of course it does, but it doesn’t have a customer feedback section and it’s not an online marketplace, so the comparison isn’t really relevant.

pjtops said
Does your business have a website? Cause if you do, I’m sure all the content there has also been “pruned to the benefit of the seller”.

Of course it does, but it doesn’t have a customer feedback section and it’s not an online marketplace, so the comparison isn’t really relevant.

A “customer feedback section” is not an “anything goes section”, and a business has the right to decide whats acceptable on its own website. And if your business is selling something, then that’s very relevant because the definition of a marketplace is that its somewhere where goods and services are sold.

pjtops said
Does your business have a website? Cause if you do, I’m sure all the content there has also been “pruned to the benefit of the seller”.

Of course it does, but it doesn’t have a customer feedback section and it’s not an online marketplace, so the comparison isn’t really relevant.

A “customer feedback section” is not an “anything goes section”, and a business has the right to decide whats acceptable on its own website. And if your business is selling something, then that’s very relevant because the definition of a marketplace is that its somewhere where goods and services are sold.

Our company website doesn’t sell products, it promotes services and these are then quoted for separately and agreements signed before work commences. Of course our content has to be accurate, but since clients are not buying directly from the website then we wouldn’t have to comply with Distance Selling Regulations in the same manner.

Envato is a marketplace selling products directly, and so product descriptions and all other content at the point of sale must be accurate from a legal point of view.

The ‘comments’ section, if manipulated, would give a distorted view of a products reliability and performance and even if this wasn’t a direct breach of Distance Selling Regulations, is not exactly helpful for customers.

I’ll restate what I’ve said previously, I’m not saying the comments section should be unmoderated and a ‘free for all’ where customers can write defamatory posts, but it shouldn’t be removing real customer concerns and issues in favour of more ‘positive’ feedback.

And about envato censoring comments, do this little exercise:
Look for items with a 1 star ratings, then go through their comments sections.

So your comments got removed. It may or may have not been justified, but just because you don’t agree with the decision taken in that one instance, it doesn’t mean the whole system is flawed, or that envato has conspired to “silence all buyers”.

pjtops said
So your comments got removed. It may or may have not been justified, but just because you don’t agree with the decision taken in that one instance, it doesn’t mean the whole system is flawed, or that envato has conspired to “silence all buyers”.

I wouldn’t know as I only have my own experience to go on, which is really the point of starting this discussion. However a staff member of Envato has admitted on here that they will remove ‘negative’ comments that are flagged, which would suggest an author can remove anything critical of their product even if the comment is a justified query from a concerned customer.

Maybe the negative comments on the 1 star products you mention are still there because the author hasn’t flagged them, or maybe they’re there because they’ve received so many complaints about the item that Envato have decided not to bother. I don’t know, but I do know I’ve had perfectly reasonable comments removed on a number of occasions.

familychoice said
Maybe the negative comments on the 1 star products you mention are still there because the author hasn’t flagged them, or maybe they’re there because they’ve received so many complaints about the item that Envato have decided not to bother. I don’t know, but I do know I’ve had perfectly reasonable comments removed on a number of occasions.

OMG! You have 3+years badge. Don’t you still know how reporting comments works here?? All users have same capability to “report” comment. And it’s up to Envato to decide whether to remove comment or not. If a comment has even one slightest reason to be removed – it will be. Especially when you are posting identical comments over-and-over-and-over-and-over-and-over-and-over-and-over-and-over-and-over again. You will not change that.

Also you will not MAKE plugin author to implement features that you require.

And the worst thing you can do – is to spend loads of time commenting here. That will not change anything. And will not make you job done.

Dream-Theme said
OMG! You have 3+years badge. Don’t you still know how reporting comments works here?? All users have same capability to “report” comment. And it’s up to Envato to decide whether to remove comment or not.

I do know how it works, thanks, but I doubt customers will have flagged the negative comments, especially as they have probably had a similarly bad experience with the product.

Dream-Theme said
Also you will not MAKE plugin author to implement features that you require.

I’m not trying to. The author boasted in his comments section that he was going to add new features, but has now withdrawn this offer. That’s up to him, disappointing but there you go, but I would like him to fix the problems that have been an issue since the theme was released several months ago.

Dream-Theme said
And the worst thing you can do – is to spend loads of time commenting here. That will not change anything. And will not make you job done.

I’m trying to get some clarity and feedback on this issue. Over the years we’ve invested a lot of time and money into authors products on here, and we also recommend hundreds of products to clients. We even promote Envato products on some of our websites. If this issue isn’t resolved then we need to have a rethink about buying products from this website. We’ve already stopped buying themes. That’s why I’m wasting my time in here, I’m hoping something positive will come out of all this, rather than the usual bashing I get from certain authors. If we can’t rely on the customer feedback section for a true picture of a products reliability then we can’t recommend or buy your products with confidence.

Dream-Theme said
P.S. Please do not bother answering my comment. I will not read/answer it anyway. Not because I’m an a**hole, but because there are lots of things worth spending time on, instead of writing comments.

Well you wrote this one, but feel free not to respond. Nice themes by the way.

CodingJack said
For cases like this, contact support, be patient, and if the issue is in fact an issue, the author will be asked to fix it. It’s a much more effective solution than a comment ever would be.

As I’ve said previously in this thread, the author was using the comments section for support, and answering queries relating to bugs and promoting new, upcoming features. The most appropriate method of correspondence in this instance was to respond to the authors own comments in that section. My, and others, responses were removed, but the authors left in place. This is why I raised a support ticket, to ask why my comments had been removed.

I guess my point is, if the item was being falsely advertised, leaving a “buyer beware” comment isn’t as effective as taking steps to actually correct the situation. For example, only some potential buyers will actually read the comments. Lots of other buyers won’t and will end up with the same frustrations you did. However, if you write support and report that the item is being falsely advertised, support will then contact the author and ask him/her to correct their description.

I don’t know the specifics of this situation, but when I report comments it’s usually to extinguish an argument. Buyers have every right to leave feedback. And authors deserve a chance to respond. But what often happens is that buyers don’t like the author’s response, get angry, and continue to post—often just repeating what they’ve already said in an angrier tone.

Comments just aren’t the appropriate place for arguments. If you leave negative feedback, understand that an author’s rebuttal is not an invitation to argue. As a buyer, the best thing you can do is to just not buy from that author again. And if the product is seriously flawed (false advertising, bugs, etc.), the best thing you can do is write support. My 2c.